Ask someone to picture a major industrial development and they're unlikely to imagine thriving habitats, protected green spaces and a sanctuary for wintering birds. Yet that's exactly what you can find at Protos, the 134-hectare energy and resource recovery park near Ince.

Protos was designed from the outset with habitat areas built into the site alongside the planned energy and resource infrastructure sites. Around 76 hectares of the site have been allocated to environmental mitigation and landscaping, including ponds, wetland scrapes, ditches, grassland, hedgerows, trees and woodland. This varied landscaping creates safe habitats that support protected species including water voles and bats, as well as a wide range of birdlife.

Protos has partnered with Cheshire Wildlife Trust (CWT) to manage the habitats across the site. CWT reviews the habitat areas each year, tracking how the ponds, ditches, grassland and planting change as the site matures.

Habitats change over time – none of this stands still. Wet edges gradually silt up and green over, young planting fills out, and the mix of wildlife shifts as each area matures. CWT’s latest report covering 2025–26 shows that the approach is working, with wildlife establishing itself on the same ground as Protos’ clean energy and resource infrastructure.

Winter flocks and breeding season
Over winter, large flocks of lapwing returned to the wetlands, joined by teal and curlew. A wild bird seed mix is grown on-site to keep chaffinch, goldfinch and linnet fed through the leanest months. Once the season turned, breeding activity picked up. Reed bunting, gadwall and reed warbler were all seen to have nested on the site, with newly-fledged goldfinch and warblers also recorded through the summer. Barn owls have now roosted and bred at Protos in five of the last nine years, with three chicks ringed this season. A second nest box was put up in the woodlands around the site in December 2025, giving barn owls more choice of nesting sites as they continue foraging over the long grass after dark.

Water voles, bats and other mammals
Water voles have flourished at Protos. Nine of the 17 ditches showed evidence of water voles in 2025-26, matching last year’s total, with fresh signs recorded on two ditches that had not seen any before. The population remains most firmly established in the areas that were created first, where the habitat has had longer to mature and the water voles have had more time to spread. After dark, five bat species were identified foraging along the ditches, hedgerows and water margins – common and soprano pipistrelle, noctule and myotis, with a brown long-eared bat also recorded on site for the first time. Brown hares were present in the grassland and hedgerow areas, and foxes and badgers were also spotted, including a new badger sett found this year.

Goldfinch Meadows and Snipe Haven
Goldfinch Meadows is open for visitors to explore on foot, with information boards along the paths explaining what to look for at different times of year. Every visit offers something different – winter brings ducks and waders to the wetland edges, while summer fills the grassland with warblers and hares. Snipe Haven remains a protected wildlife habitat. Its shallow scrapes and wet grassland were designed specifically for water voles and breeding waders, which will only settle if undisturbed. Protecting Snipe Haven provides the conditions these species need to breed, while Goldfinch Meadows offers a way for local people to roam the site and enjoy the wildlife up close.

If you do visit, please stick to the marked paths, keep dogs on a lead and leave only footprints: please take any litter home.

Industry and nature side by side
CWT’s annual review shows what can happen when habitat is designed into an operational development and then managed over time. With careful planning and the right long-term partnership, industry and nature can co-exist and grow alongside one another.

For more information on the nature areas and walking routes, visit protos.co.uk/community/nature.